(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — More than two dozen houses of worship are expected to be represented Saturday at a seminar on church security.
Jack Rolfe’s first “Ministry of Church Defense” event will be held at Calvary Church in Naperville.
When it comes to church security, he said: “The top three concerns of pastors are optics, guns and cost.”
Many security experts focus on active shooters, but he said other types of threats are more likely, such as protesters or people with mental illnesses.
In one instance, a known protester showed up at Calvary Church.
“This guy was just kind of lurking around and was pointed out. He had a motorcycle T-shirt on. I went up to him and said, ‘Hey, you got a motorcycle?’ We just started a conversation about motorcycles, nothing else,” Rolfe recalled. “He saw my earpiece, and in five minutes, he was gone.”
Another example: the time a distraught man who came into the church.
“We learned that his wife was going to church there. She was terminally ill with cancer, and he just didn’t know where she was. He was just trying to find her,” he said.
The 30-year veteran of church security said having “layers” of security and people trained in de-escalation techniques are the best strategies to keep worship safe.
“Our goal is to calm things down and to mitigate situations in a peaceful way,” Rolfe said.
That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be trained for more serious scenarios, Rolfe said. He stressed those are less likely to take place.
“You never know who’s got what tucked underneath their shirt, although we do train on how to identify people who are carrying firearms or telltale signs of that,” he said.
Rolfe plans to hold similar events every three months and eventually take his Ministry of Church Defense to other cities.
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